


Lapse

by butyoumight



Series: Folie à Deux [2]
Category: Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-20
Updated: 2012-09-20
Packaged: 2017-11-14 16:16:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/517205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/butyoumight/pseuds/butyoumight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>And situate the piece of the picture underneath my fingers, it protects me in my dreams. It's not as deep as it seems, and as unfair as it may be, <b>I'm just here to remind you, remind you not to forget to remember me</b></i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lapse

**Author's Note:**

> Alternate universe with four original Go-Busters, and an Enter based on a single specific person. Takes place four years after [Mirrors](http://archiveofourown.org/works/514817).

By the time four years had passed, he had forgotten his own name.

Other names were less consequential, and consequently faster to slip into disuse, then obscurity and finally oblivion.

Everyone he knew, as the bright and friendly son of their most prolific financial backers. Researchers and engineers, pilots and maintenance workers, even the secretaries. Everyone doted on him, on _them_. Their names were the first to go. They all disappeared. Then he started to lose the ones closer to his heart.

The older boy, who was there so frequently. He followed the engineers around with a notebook clasped in hand, though whether he was taking notes or waiting for an opportunity to ask for an autograph was anyone's guess. His name disappeared.

The little girl, she was there almost every day. Her mother was a pilot of the machines that he now knows intimately. She was so young, but very bright, the crew in the facility all doted on her. Even he hadn't been immune to her bright eyes and innocent curiosity. Her name disappeared.

The younger boy, he might be there every day, if he hadn't more family than the others, a sister at home to watch him. Both of his parents worked there, though, and so he was often at hand, or better yet, underfoot. His name disappeared.

His parents. If he had the capacity to feel pain by then, he might have been distressed the first time he tried to recall their faces, their voices, their names and found nothing but blurry stuttered images like a poorly preserved silent film. But they too disappeared into nothing, just the same.

And his own name. Gone, just like that. After four years, he became simply Enter.

There was one name, though, that he kept close to his heart, that he hid away to hold onto, that was his lone light when the darkness threatened to overwhelm, when Messiah's anger became difficult to bear.

 _Etienne_.

-

"Ryuu-san?"

Youko had grown up to be pretty precocious in four years. Her new favorite game was running away from Usada and hiding, usually in the break room, sometimes in Ryuuji's room, or Etienne's room, or one of the training rooms, very rarely one of the Buster Machine hangers.

He didn't usually expect her to pipe up that loud when she was playing hide-and-make-Usada-yell, though, so the question caught him off guard in the middle of a cup of coffee.

"Youko-chan." It was hard to think sometimes that she was now as old as Hiromu had been then. And Hiromu was eleven now, though they didn't see much of him. Ryuuji himself was only a few months away from adulthood. "Is something wrong?"

"I heard the Buddyroids talking. They said it was someone's birthday. Who's birthday is it, Ryuu-san?" 

Ryuuji looked down into his cup of coffee, thinking he's going to need a lot more of it to get through this conversation. His first thought is that he's going to have to have a talk with the Buddyroids about what all they talk about among themselves. His second thought is that he's not being fair to Youko. They shouldn't keep her in the dark forever. If she's smart enough to be asking these kinds of questions, she must be grown up enough to know the answers.

"It's Etienne's birthday today." He finally answers. Her eyes go wide, and she climbs up on one of the yellow chairs so she can lean over the table.

"Is it really? Why aren't we having a party, then? We have parties for my birthday. We have parties for yours too! And sometimes we have cake and stuff for everyone else." 

He hesitates again, taking a slow sip of his coffee to give himself time to think. "Etienne doesn't want to have parties for his birthday."

This catches her off guard and she sits back, crossing her arms over her chest and scowling. Ryuuji reflects that the idea of not wanting to celebrate oneself with cake and presents must be unforgiveble to a seven-year-old. 

"Why not?" She asks finally, and she puts so much weight into the words that he can't help but take her seriously. 

"Do you remember Etienne four years ago?" He asks. He keeps his voice light, not wanting to upset her. They don't talk about the incident too often, maybe not often enough. "Do you remember anything about the... the Christmas party?"

Her face scrunches up in deep thought. "I remember... That it always seemed like he was everywhere." 

Ryuuji looked into his coffee again, biting his lip. "Sort of. You're not just remembering Etienne. Etienne had a brother, a twin brother. Emeric." The name feels foreign to his lips. For all they hardly talk about the incident, they talk about Etienne's brother even less. Ryuuji can't actually remember hearing the name spoken in the last year, at least. 

"So it's Emeric's birthday too?" She pauses for a moment, then frowns at him. "Where is he, Ryuu-san? If he's not here..." It dawns on her slowly and Ryuuji puts his coffee cup down to reach across the table and take her little hand in his.

"Emeric was lost with your mom, and the rest of them. That's why Etienne doesn't like to celebrate his birthday. It's sad for him, to think about his brother not being here anymore." 

Her face crumples, and for a moment Ryuuji's quite sure she's going to cry. She does sniffle a few times, but then sits up a little straighter. "I'll practice hard, then, and we'll save everybody,and then Ei-chan can have birthdays with the rest of us."

Her tiny determination is so heartfelt. Ryuuji stands up to circle the table and give her a hug. "That's a great idea, Youko-chan."

**Author's Note:**

> Title and summary lyrics taken from [Lapse](http://www.plyrics.com/lyrics/envyonthecoast/lapse.html) by Envy on the Coast.


End file.
